Donald Trump's chief of staff has issued an update on Elon Musk's role in the White House after he was previously appointed to lead the president's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk featured prominently alongside Trump during his early days back in office, at one point even bringing his son into the Oval Office to hang out with the POTUS while the two adults answered questions from press.
The involvement of the SpaceX founder in the government caused some controversy as members of the public questioned what his actual role was, and in an interview with Fox News earlier this year Trump said he picked Musk as his go-to man because he 'couldn't find anyone smarter'.
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More recently, however, Musk has been noticeably absent from public engagements with Trump, and during a recent Tesla earnings call Musk revealed that his time running DOGE would be reduced 'significantly' from May as he focuses on running the electric car company.
Speaking with investors, Musk explained that he would spend a 'day or two per week' on government issues 'for as long as the president would like [him] to do so'.
Now, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has revealed that Musk is no longer working directly alongside Trump at the White House.
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In an interview with The New York Post, she said: "Instead of meeting with him in person, I’m talking to him on the phone, but it’s the same net effect.
"He’s not out of it altogether. He’s just not physically present as much as he was. He hasn’t been here physically, but it really doesn’t matter much.
"The people that are doing this work are here doing good things and paying attention to the details. He’ll be stepping back a little, but he’s certainly not abandoning it. And his people are definitely not."
DOGE will continue to run in spite of Musk's step back, with the department aimed at cutting government costs, modernizing federal technology, ending fraud and a waste of taxpayer money while improving overall governmental productivity.
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In a recent interview to mark his 100 days in office, Trump claimed DOGE has saved '$150 billion', and had put a lot of spending 'under investigation'.
"That's a tremendous amount of money," Trump said.
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Politics, US News
Emily Brown